The last great heist of the 1950s started when Detroit mobster Salvatore Finazzo called Milwaukee number BR1-6855, the City-Wide Amusement Company, on May 1 and June 3, 1958. City-Wide was a business specializing in coin-operated machines and was run by brothers Frank and Peter Balistrieri out of Frank’s home at 1417 North Humboldt Avenue. Balistrieri and Finazzo had known each other from their earlier days promoting boxing matches, but maintained a working relationship for underworld business. This time, Finazzo was looking for some inexpensive — preferably free — goods to feature in his shop, the Rex Bargain Store.
Note: This is not meant to be a fully-formed article. It is merely a repository of information at this time.
FBI Files and other public documents can be found here: https://kingsridgemedia.com/MM/fbi-files/
Gavin’s Note: Much of this story is convoluted, because it is not clear at all who is telling the truth. It is also not at all clear that the Finazzo-Balistrieri call really was the starting point, but it’s very odd that Finazzo seemed to end up with the merchandise down the line.
1957
James Hurley Bishop met Frank Robert Verville in Detroit in late 1957 (if they are to be believed).
On December 31, 1957, Bishop and Verville were at a poker party with Robert Leroy Halpin, Samuel Abdo, Fred Waldman and a man Bishop knew only as Dick.
1958
May 20, 1958: After a few months in California, Bishop returned to Detroit and met up with Verville. They decided to purchase a business together.
Roy J. Scanlon, who operated Scanlon’s Radio and Music at 707 West Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee since 1934, died from diabetes complications in June 1958. He had previously managed the Orth Music Company for twelve years.
Frank Verville of Chicago and James Bishop of Forest Park took over the store on July 8, 1958, purchasing the business under the false name of James Brent Kelly. Verville called himself Frank Edwards, but had also used the names Frank Virgil, Frank Crandon, Frank Norton and Ralph North. The deal they worked out with Mrs. Mary Scanlon was one-third down, and the other two-thirds would be paid as they sold off the stock. They told her they were interested in running a hi-fi store, and this was a stepping stone. Mary’s attorney, Earle Fricker, ran a credit check on “Kelly” and it came back okay. Bishop had a record of various thefts and worthless checks under a string of false names dating to 1947 and had served time in Marquette (Michigan) prison. Alice Barant, a Scanlon employee for 25 years, stayed on with the new management for the first two weeks but quickly found things to be “fishy” and found Bishop to be “a very poor businessman.”
July 30, 1958: Scanlon’s (specifically James Bishop) begins renting the building at 8104 West National in West Allis from Allen Mundigler. They use this space for storing merchandise that is dropped off and shipped out.
August 5-7, 1958: Jack Shubow stayed at the Morrison Hotel. While there, he called Gene Gillis long distance.
August 27-28, 1958: Jack Shubow stayed at the Morrison Hotel. While there, he called Gene Gillis long distance.
Early September 1958, Irving Lichterman was in Milwaukee to view the operations of Scanlon’s. Lichterman was the secretary of E&A Sales in Cleveland.
September 11-20, 1958: Scanlon’s rented a truck from Yellow Transit Company of Milwaukee for $380.32, putting on total mileage of 1,738.
September 12, 1958: Spieldenner’s garage gets a call requesting a tow truck for a semi just off of Exit 6 on the Ohio Turnpike (near Fremont). A driver (probably Rushus) was on his way to Cleveland. The garage fixed him up for $140 but warned him it was temporary. The next day, the truck broke down at the exact same exit and the truck was again towed to Spieldenner. A new engine was shipped to them from the Yellow Truck Rental Service in Milwaukee. The driver went to Chicago while repairs were made and returned to Fremont on September 17, placing a call from the truck stop at the Fremont Oil Company.
September 17-21, 1958: A couple (redacted) driving a car with Wisconsin plates stayed at the Pallister Motel (7641 Woodward Avenue) in Detroit. While there, they made one phone call to Chicago and numerous calls to Detroit.
September 19, 1958: Around 4pm, property manager Emmanuel Rosenberg was informed that Jacob “Jack” Shubow wanted to lease the property at 14442-8 Grand River Avenue, Detroit. The terms of the agreement were to be $1,000 in advance for the period of September 19 through December 31, and $15 per day for each day thereafter. A lease agreement was then made between between Avon Realty and Rich-Mor Sales Company, signed by (redacted). Around 5:30pm, Robert Halpin came in asking for the keys to the property. He was not Jack Shubow, but said he was Jack’s partner and Jack would pay the $1,000 the next day. Because the property manager knew Jack personally, he handed over the keys without payment.
September 20, 1958: A lady went to the property manager’s office and said she wasn’t able to open one of the doors in the block of Grand River Avenue properties. The manager went out and opened the door, and while there observed several people unloading boxes from a truck at the rear of the store. The manager called Jack Shubow to inquire about the $1,000. Shubow said he was trying to get it from the man renting the property, which was the first that the manager heard the renter was NOT Jack himself. Shubow guaranteed if the man wouldn’t pay, Shubow would cover it himself.
September 23: (redacted) flew from Cleveland to Chicago to Milwaukee on Capital Airlines.
Around October 1958, various goods were “stolen” from Scanlon’s Radio. An investigation soon found some of the stolen property at a warehouse for B. J. Pollard, Inc on Prairie Street in Detroit, a business that specialized in liquid calcium. A spot check by authorities revealed cars at this warehouse belonging to mobsters Frank Quasarano, John Parrinello and Salvatore Finazzo. A trailer there was owned by Mike Polizzi. Some of the goods were being brought to Finazzo’s store on Jefferson Street, with the rest kept at the Prairie Street warehouse.
Unknown at the time, loads were leaving as early as October 1 for Cleveland. The driver later said he would arrive at Scanlon’s and as fast as things could be delivered, they would load him up to go to Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
The FBI questioned a former employee who said he started working there in July and while working Salvatore Finazzo came in, walked around, and looked at the merchandise. By October 10, the warehouse was completely emptied. Balistrieri had come through for his friend with flying colors.
October 1: Robert Halpin hired Robert Williams and Len Harris to work at a warehouse on Grand River Avenue in Detroit. The two were walking down the street when Halpin pulled up in his car and offered them the work; they agreed and got a ride there.
October 3: Ruth Jane McGuigan hired university student Robert Burt, her nephew, to unload trucks at Detroit.
October 8: Jack Shubow paid Bernard J Pollard $400 for the rental of warehouse space on Prairie Avenue in Detroit.
October 10: new owner James Bishop disappeared from Milwaukee and would not be caught until November 13, when the FBI found him in Los Angeles. He had been forced into involuntary bankruptcy that day (October 10). On his way out of town, Bishop bought a shotgun from the Casanova sport shop with a bad check.
One of Scanlon’s creditors, Kohnert and Howard, was suspicious of the bankruptcy and had private investigator Edwin Steffen of National Protective Service watch the business. The private investigator saw merchandise being loaded on to a trailer from the Scanlan TV Center (8104 West National) and he followed the trailer to the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. Indeed, when Attorney Leander Foley (appointed receiver by Judge Robert Tehan) went to the store, he found it empty. The truck carrying merchandise from the TV Center was driven by Rushus “Bob” Williams; he spent the night in Chicago and arrived in Detroit the next day. He did not load or unload the trailer and was paid in cash ($300 to deliver two truckloads). In Detroit, at a Shell station off the Route 12 expressway, the load was moved to another trailer, so he never saw the final destination.
October 11, 1958: (Redacted) paid the $1,000 owed on the Grand River property, signing over a check that was written to him from Rich-Mor Sales. The check was then deposited int othe account of Oak Park Management Company.
October 17, 1958: The FBI spoke with US Attorney Edward Minor, concerned that Scanlon may have violated the Bankruptcy Act. Minor said he did not think such a violation existed based on what they knew so far, but conceded that at the very least stolen goods did appear to be transported across state lines, greenlighting an FBI investigation.
Meanwhile, Jess Joseph Beron was offered a large quantity of merchandise from the Prairie Street warehouse to bring in to Canada and sell. The goods were valued at $116,000 wholesale or $236,000 retail. Beron lived in Detroit but operated Beron Distributing across the border in Windsor. Beron was driven to the warehouse on October 23 by Finazzo and Raffaele Quasarano. He was told that he did not have to pay for any of the merchandise until the goods were all sold, and he could have an attorney make out a bill of sale any way he wanted so that Beron would be in the clear; the receipt would show he had legally purchased these items. He was pressured from one of the men there not to tell the police, and the man said he had already served time for a double murder so he was not someone to mess with. Beron agreed to the deal and brought the goods into Canada on October 24 and sold them to a man named Peter Victor Cavataio, the owner of the Erie Street Bakery in Windsor, for a down payment of $5,000 with the rest to be paid later.
October 23: Jack Shubow stayed at the Burdick Hotel in Kalamazoo. While there the one night (rent was $9.95), he called Detroit twice (Jess Beron and the Sidney Hill Health Club), Springfield and Glencoe, Illinois.
October 24, 1958: At 12:30pm, Shubow met Beron at the corner of Michigan and Wyoming in Detroit and suggested to Beron to try and scare the Italians by telling them the FBI or cops knew about the merchandise.
October 24, 1958: Jack Shubow went to Rosenberg’s office and asked if there was anything in writing about the lease of the Grand River store. He was showed the lease, and Shubow was disturbed to see Rich-Mor Sales on there, as he (Shubow) had never indicated Rich-Mor was involved. Shubow informed Rosenberg that someone might come and ask who rented the store, and if that happened to say it was rented with cash and his name was never spoken.
October 24: The FBI interviewed Irving Lichterman, who more or less refused to talk without an attorney. He would not say what merchandise his company E&A sold to the Community Discount Furniture store, another business he had partial ownership of. He said any purchases made from Scanlon were “in good faith.”
Circa October 26, 1958: The FBI found $100,000 worth of Scanlon merchandise in a Detroit warehouse.
On the morning of October 27, 1958, FBI agents spoke with Ludwig Rohe, the bookkeeper for Rich-Mor Sales. He advised he had been born in Cologne, Germany, became an American in 1942, and began working for Jack Shubow in 1955. He recalled that near the end of September 1958, two men visited Shubow and the men represented themselves as being from Scanlon Radio of Milwaukee. Rohe was under the impression the men were transferring their business to Detroit, as they shipped merchandise to two locations in town: the Pollard warehouse and the Grand River store formerly occupied by Beverly Furniture. Rohe used the invoices from Scanlon to create new prices and sold approximately $8,000 each to three comapnies: Link Sales (Washington, DC), Universal Associates (Charleston, WV) and Better Home Products (Syracuse). Rohe said the last shipment left on October 23 and there was still “tens of thousands” of dollars worth of merchandise at the Pollard location.
October 27, 1958: The FBI ran surveillance on the BJ Pollard yard (14300 Prairie) in Detroit and made note of cars coming and going. One car (a 1958 DeSoto) was registered to Leo Adler, Inc and was known to be usually driven by Salvatore Finazzo. Agents spoke to the man in charge there, Anthony Thomas, who said he was in the salvage business and purchased goods for 35 cents on the dollar. When asked his home address, he told them 11747 East Jefferson, which was the Rex Bargain Store – a building with no living quarters. Agents spoke to other men on the property loading trucks, and each of them indicated they were day laborers and this was their first day on the job. Later that day, Thomas agreed to appear at the Detroit FBI office with his attorney present. He had with him a handwritten receipt saying he paid $5,000 for a share of the Scanlon goods. Thomas explained the deal was made with Jess Beron, who ran a discount store in Windsor. Thomas went to see Beron with his boss from the Rex Bargain Store, whom he would not name, and the boss paid the $5,000. Through Beron, Thomas met up with Jack Shubow and Ludwig Rohe, who had invoices for the goods and it was brought to the BJ Pollard yard. Thomas again stressed it was his boss who paid the $5,000, as he was making only $75 a week at Rex Bargain and could not afford such a transaction. Thomas was generally evasive in his answers, but conceded he had loaded several trucks at the Prairie Street warehouse, brought it to BJ Pollard, and later moved it to Love Brothers (300 McKinstry Street). The agents checked Thomas’ record and found a long list of offenses in Detroit: breaking and entering, larceny, armed robbery,and finally a murder in 1935 that he served 15-20 years for. (Thomas was, in fact, a suspect in two murders at the time: Steve Barisch and mechanic Frank Olsen, both targets of holdups. He was once linked to the Purple Gang, though believed to be only an associate and not a member.) Agents also ran Finazzo’s record, which contained a long list of liquor and gambling violations. He was investigated for three murders, but never convicted.
October 27, 1958: Agents interviewed Jack Shubow at Rich-Mor Sales before noon. According to Shubow, he had received a call from Milwaukee asking him to find buyers for housewares, and he would receive a 5% commission on anything sold. Shubow said he did not know the person who called, but did not find it odd; he attended many conventions and was well known as a dealer in housewares. He found an assortment of buyers and then rented space on Grand River to store it. He also suggested the E&A company in Cleveland, which Scanlon dealt with directly. Shubow said he never met the Milwaukee men, did not hire the “wild cat” truck drivers who brought the merchandise, and in fact never even went to the Grand River store to look at it. Mid-interview, Shubow walked to a bar and made a telephone call (possibly to the property manager). He came back and explained he had not been fully honest in the past because he did not want his customers to get in trouble. As far as he knew, his commission was legitimate and Scanlon was a reputable company. Shubow further added that besides the Grand River store, he never went to the BJ Pollard yard. He refused to allow the FBI to see his books (ledgers). Shubow said he understood that Jess Beron had a deal with a man named Tony, but when it came time to load the trucks, “Tony” was with five or six Italian men who told Beron, “We’re taking over.” He only knew this secondhand, because he was in Kalamazoo at the time and was told after the fact.
October 27, 1958: Rosenberg was informed that two men were waiting for him in his office. Rosenberg called Jack Shubow and asked if these were the people he mentioned earlier. Shubow was not clear, and left Rosenberg with the impression they might be creditors. Rosenberg was told to write a receipt for the $1,000 made out to Bob Gunther, which he did and then put in his wallet. He went to the office and the men asked him about the property. He explained the situation as Shubow had told him to, and then pulled out the receipt. The men found it odd he had it on him in his wallet and told him so. Rosenberg asked who they were to ask such questions on how he ran his business, at which time they informed him they were FBI. They made a copy of the fake receipt and left. That evening, Jack Shubow came in and said he was the victim of “some involvement with some individuals” but it was nothing to worry about.
October 27, 1958: Beron received a call from Windsor asking for the $5,000 back. He said he would give the money back in exchange for the receipt, but the caller refused. Later that day, Beron received a call from Raffaele Quasarano (whom he called the “big fellow”) who warned him the FBI would be coming to talk with him. Beron was told to tell the FBI their transaction was a legitimate sale and to have a receipt made out and brought to a restaurant on Woodward Avenue the next morning at 9am. He did what he was told, having an employee fill out a receipt and then bringing the slip to the restaurant for a man named Anthony “Little Shrieky” Thomas.
October 28, 1958: The FBI contacted Love Brothers Cartage of Detroit and they confirmed they were renting warehouse space to Sam Jacobs, who they knew to be really Sam Finazzo. Agents went to the warehouse and found boxes of Scanlon merchandise in the rented space. While at the warehouse, Finazzo called the Love Brothers office. The manager warned Finazzo that agents were there and would probably be visiting him soon. Finazzo said he had a receipt and wasn’t worried.
October 28: Agents interviewed Irving Lichterman again, and he was far more forthcoming than the few days prior. He now said he had received no large shipments in October, but in September he received some washing machines and Japanese toys from Jack Shubow, who he had known for several years and believed to be reliable. The washing machines were sold to Community Furniture, another business Lichterman had partial ownership of (the two businesses were even connected by an archway). The total amount of merchandise was $3,500, though he received no bill of lading and was not present when the truck was unloaded. Lichterman told Shubow he was not satisfied with the $3,500 price and instead sent Rich-Mor two checks totalling $3,000 on October 15. Lichterman said this was his only payment to Rich-Mor in months and he never paid Scanlon anything. Lichterman said despite his being a stockholder, he had no financial interest in Community Furniture, and selling things to them was a real sale and not merely a “transfer of merchandise.”
October 29, 1958: The FBI interviewed a man who said he was paid $1/hour to unload trucks at the Grand River store. After the first day, he was offered a longer term job at $65/week and he took it, being paid by Jack Shubow, with extra cash to give to “two Negro helpers.” The man said he did not know the merchandise was stolen but simply needed a job. He added that at no time was any of the merchandise inventoried while he was overseeing the unloading. Sara Hart Burt, who helped the man secure this employment, spoke with the FBI the same day and verified his story. She said she had known the person who hired the man a long time and “never dreamed” they would be tricked into a “crooked scheme.”
October 29, 1958: The FBI interviewed Harry Markin, owner of Better Home Products in Syracuse, New York. Markin had purchased a number of Scanlon goods (primarily toys) from Jack Shubow at 60% of invoice, who he had known professionally for six years. Markin said the goods arrived with a hand-written invoice rather than the usual typewritten papers he received with a formal masthead. Markin said that normally this would be enough to cause suspicion, but it was the first time in dealing with Shubow that such an invoice was used, so he thought nothing of it – all previous deals were strictly legitimate. The invoice did note it was shipped from the Beverly Company rather than Shubow or Rich-Mor, and Markin told the agents he did not know who the Beverly Company was. Markin’s record contained arrests for assault and possessing pornography, but he was not known to be a thief or dishonest businessman.
The FBI called Jess Beron on October 29 and asked him for an interview. He agreed and came in the next day. Beron said that in mid-October he received a call from someone claiming to be from the Beverly Furniture Company, offering his merchandise at 50% of the wholesale value. Beron went to the location (the Grand River store) and found many unopened boxes. He picked out $2400 in merchandise and paid with a post-dated check. Also in the store at the time was Ludwig Rohe, who was showing Harry Markin around. Beron said he had the customs forms for the merchandise and would gladly turn them over. He said he was called back to the store on October 20 or 21, this time offered $100,000 in merchandise for 35% of the wholesale price. Beron was scared by the deal, and the man there said he would instead offer Beron a 5% commission if he could find a buyer. The man said to contact Jack Shubow, as he had the key. Two days later, Beron met up with “Tony Kritchner” (actually Anthony “Little Shrieky” Thomas) who wanted in on the deal. They visited Shubow, but he wasn’t in, and Ludwig Rohe took them to the Pollard warehouse location. When the door was opened, Beron was shocked by how much stuff was in there. Tony offered to buy it all.
On October 23, Beron was to meet Tony at Rich-Mor and after waiting two hours, Tony showed up with a “big guy” and the big guy said “we’re taking over.” Beron asked, “Is this a heist?” The man said, “Something like that.” The three drove to the Pollard warehouse, where the big guy said the stuff there “is ours as much as theirs.” Tony told Beron that if anyone asked, the merchandise was sold in good faith.
Beron called Shubow on October 27 and at that time Shubow said he couldn’t talk because his place was “surrounded by FBI agents.” (When shown photographs, Beron suddenly remembered Sam Finazzo was with Tony Thomas, but he insisted the “big guy” did all the talking, not Finazzo, and at one point warned Beron that Tony had served time for “double murder” and was not to be messed with.)
October 30, 1958: Samuel Abdo was interviewed at the Hotel Rienzi in Chicago. He said he was hired on as a manager for Wyn-Oak at the start of October. He had met his employers by coincidence the previous November and then ran into them a second time shortly before offered the job. Abdo said he made $125 a week, but only really started working on October 22, and even then only had one employee – a young, black man who was from Detroit. Abdo wasn’t even sure what his name was. Abdo denied seeing any boxes or records marked as Scanlon merchandise, but told the agents he would not go back to work the next day as he had no interest in being caught “in the middle” of whatever was going to happen.
October 30, 1958: FBI agents spoke with Jack Shubow’s accountant at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. The accountant was from Detroit, but was in Chicago for a Jewish wedding. The accountant told the agents the story Shubow told him – he (Jack) was contacted by guys in Milwaukee offering him goods at 70% of the invoice price. This was a great deal, so he took it. Not long after, Scanlon went into bankruptcy and Shubow figured out something wasn’t right. He no longer wanted the merchandise that was sitting in the Detroit warehouse, so (redacted) contacted Jess Beron, who – along with an Italian partner – would buy the Detroit goods and carry it into Canada. While transporting the goods, Beron was hijacked and held at knifepoint, and a group of men stole the truck. Beron called Shubow to tell him what happened. Shubow suggested that Beron call his “dago” friend and warn him that the FBI was looking for the truck, which he did, and the merchandise was soon returned.
October 31, 1958: The FBI interviewed Eugene Philip Gillis, vice president of sales for Empire Amerex Products, at his Chicago office. Gillis told the agents he had expected them, as he was warned by his brother-in-law Jack Shubow they may be coming by because of his knowledge of some sales. Gillis was shown a photo of (redacted) and acknowledged he knew the man, having first met him in Detroit around August 1955 when he (the man) was affiliated with Border Sales and Novelty.
Border sold housewares, so Gillis was a supply source until Border was placed into receivership around January 1958. Another photograph was shown and Gillis identified the man as someone he knew from the days he (Gillis) worked for Diamond TV and Warranty Sales in Detroit, around 1952. Regarding the Scanlon issue, Gillis said he had been contacted by Shubow on behalf of people who wanted to convert inventory into cash. Gillis said he never had the impression that the items were not the legal property of the men looking to sell them. He met with the men a couple times, and recalled they drove a yellow Cadillac, but he didn’t know the license plate. The inventory was offered to Gillis at 60-80% of the invoice price, which he told the agents was not at all an unusual rate. One of the men Gillis connected Shubow with was Jess Beron of Cleveland.
Ludwig Rohe stopped by the FBI office on November 1, 1958. He added to his earlier statement, now saying another customer of Shubow’s was Jess Beron, who received merchandise from the Grand River store. Another customer was E&A Sales, though Rohe did not know where they had received merchandise from. He was only aware of them because they had sent $6,000 in checks, half of which were denied for insufficient funds.
November 1: E&A began renting 10,000 square feet of space at 715 Carnegie in Cleveland for $400/month. The first month was paid by check. The second month was initially by check, but then cash when the check bounced. The merchandise moved in there could have fit in 1,000 square feet.
November 3, 1958: Abdo was recontacted at the Rienzi Hotel by the FBI. Abdo said (and his claims were verified) that he was accused of selling stolen radios by two Chicago detectives on October 31. Abdo swore the radios were not stolen, but the cops “shook him down for about two weeks pay.”
Circa November 3, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Frank Verville.
Ludwig Rohe spoke with the FBI again on November 4. He said he had worked with Jess Beron in May 1958 when Beron was buying merchandise from the Bell Novelty Company (Detroit) for a store in Windsor. Rohe was involved because Jack Shubow forwarded Beron $10,000 to make the transaction. Rohe was now aware that one of the men from Bell Novelty in May was also part of the Scanlon deal later on. (The record is redacted, so I don’t know which man it was.) Rohe said the merchandise in May was from some company called Approved Appliance in Ohio and Bell was just the middleman. The transaction was legitimate as far as he knew and all items were declared to customs when entering Canada.
November 4, 1958: A former employee (name redacted) was interviewed by the FBI. The employee began around March 1957, and was involved in moving trucks from one location to another. He recalled moving a truck of office furniture to Wyn-Oak Appliance at 6801 West Roosevelt in Chicago. When the Milwaukee store opened, he moved there in July 1958. (Wyn-Oak went under new ownership July 21, 1958… probably not a coincidence.)
The employee said at first things were very quiet, but soon there were large quantities of merchandise coming in, and then being shipped out the same day. He found this to be likely “illegitimate.” From photos, the employee said Jack Shubow had been in the warehouse looking over the merchandise, and he believed that Shubow was accompanied by Jess Beron. He also picked out a photo of Sam Finazzo. The employee acknowledged he was the one who drove the merchandise out of the store on October 10 in a Hertz rental truck, and brought it to the Wyn-Oak store. The truck was brought back to Milwaukee and the employee took a train from there to Chicago to stay with his mother. On October 22 or 23, he said he made a delivery of goods to Rich-Mor Sales, which was on Linwood in Detroit.
November 12: The FBI asked the local garbage collectors in Detroit to save the trash from Bell Novelty (12876 East Jefferson) for them. The collectors said that the people at Bell usually put the trash in the truck themselves, so on this day the truck drove around the corner to Emerson Street without crushing it and then the bags were taken back out and given to the FBI. No Scanlon records were found in the trash.
November 13, 1958: James Bishop was arrested in Sylmar, California. He was in the Olive View Motel with a woman he had married only two months prior. The only thing of interest found in the room (#4) was a locked briefcase that contained “personal papers.” When the key was attained from (redacted, Bishop’s wife?) it was found to contain three marijuana cigarettes and a “glass jar” of narcotics. Bishop was brought to the Los Angeles County jail and held with $15,000 bond.
Around November 13, a suspect (presumably Bishop) was interviewed by the FBI in Los Angeles. He said he has never heard of Jess Beron and had never met Jack Shubow, though he was present when (redacted, presumably Verville) spoke with Shubow on the phone and Shubow wanted to buy $30,000 or $40,000 in merchandise. (Verville?) had dealt with Shubow in the past. A week later, (redacted) from A&E Sales in Cleveland arrived in Milwaukee to look over the merchandise. Soon after, merchandise was sent to Detroit and Cleveland. Someone from the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas was somehow involved, too (doesn’t seem like any deal was consummated, but record is spotty).
November 14, 1958: Mrs. Ruth McGuigan was picked up in Chicago. She was alleged to have overseen the transfer of appliances, typewriters, cameras and more to two Detroit warehouses.
November 15, 1958: (redacted) was apprehended in Berwyn, Illinois.
November 24, 1958: Jess Beron’s attorney contacted the FBI and said his client had “two or three things” he wanted to change from his statements in October, and still wasn’t ready to sign those statements. His “mental condition” was not good.
November 24: The FBI attempted to interview Edward Wigodski and show him photographs of other suspects. He refused to be interviewd or look at the photos.
November 24: A woman called the FBI to alert them that a trailer was being loaded in the alley behind Bell Novelty. Agents showed up at 2:12pm and began running surveillance; they did see a trailer being loaded, and driving was a 20-year old man who looked Italian. The boxes being loaded were labeled Lindburg Company, Knickerbocker Plastic, and Hawk Model Company. The trailer was taken across the Ambassador Bridge to the Bonus Specialty Company in Windsor. At Customs, they had declared $5,198 worth of “toys and decorations.”
November 26: Wyn-Oak Appliance was forced into involuntary bankruptcy.
December 4, 1958: James Bishop was indicted in Milwaukee. This indictment meant he no longer had to face extradition proceedings and could be brought to Wisconsin immediately.
December 6, 1958: A call came in to the FBI from New Haven, Connecticut (of all places) suggesting they look into Northway Wholesale of Green Bay. The caller suspected they were a “fly-by-night” business and possibly connected to the Scanlon people.
December 7: Jess Beron collapsed for “four hours” according to his attorney and was admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital for depression.
December 8, 1958: Suspects Frank Verville and Robert Halpin surrendered themselves at Detroit and were released on $1500 bond pending a grand jury.
December 10, 1958: The list of creditors for Scanlon was reported to be 142 pages long, as many as 1300 names, and debts of at least $500,000. More claims were coming in each day.
December 12: The FBI spoke with the Better Business Bureau about E&A. The report was not good. The business had previously been investigated for false advertising and had survived one bankruptcy. Edward Wigodski was involved in the Benson Fur Company from 1947-1951. Many complaints were received, and Wigodski was at one point sentenced to 90 days in jail (reduced to one year probation) for improper pricing. Lichterman had previously been connected with various businesses, including a fur company, and all of them had negative BBB ratings.
December 19, 1958: Frank Verville was formally indicted by a Milwaukee grand jury. Debts were now said to be up to $700,000. Indicted the same day, on a completely unrelated charge, was Delos L. Reed, who had made extortion attempts of Milwaukee’s Oscar Bogda, secretary-treasurer of Constant Hosiery.
December 19: Capital Bank of Cleveland closed E&A’s account for too many checks drawn from insufficient funds.
December 21, 1958: Jack Shubow’s attorney contacted the FBI. According to the attorney, Shubow had recently been called by the credit manager at Helbros Watch Company of New York. They asked Shubow what he had gotten mixed up in, and told him that a man in Chicago had been murdered because of the Scanlon deal. (Whether this is true is doubtful.)
December 29: After traveling from one county jail to the next for 17 days, James Bishop arrived in Milwaukee and was free after attorney Dominic Frinzi secured $12,500 from a bondsman.
December 29: Lichterman was supposed to appear at a 21(a) hearing (???) but Cleveland bankruptcy Judge Carl D. Friedbolin was informed that he was in Florida and his attorney was in Mexico. The hearing was rescheduled for January 7.
1959
January 2, 1959: The FBI spoke with Sid Fein of Oak Park, Michigan, who was in the discount merchandise business. He said he knew Wigodski and Lichterman from E&A for three or four years and regularly contacted them multiple times a month looking for goods. He was contacted by them on September 18 and offered a large amount of merchandise at either 15% below cost and a 7% commission or 25% below cost and a 5% commission. This was unusual because although he had purchased many times in the past, he had never been asked to sell on the company’s behalf (making a commission rather than buying outright). He went to E&A where Wigodski showed him 8,000 square feet of space full of cartons stacked six feet high. How much of this was from Scanlon he did not know. Everything from toys to appliances to leather goods were in there. Within days, Fein brought two different customers to E&A who were interested, but neither made a purchase and soon after Fein began to believe the deal was rotten.
January 6, 1959: The FBI interviewed Jack Shubow again. His story was that around September 1, he received a call from (redacted) in Milwaukee that there was $100,000+ in merchandise for sale at 50% of invoice. Shubow called Gene Gillis, his brother-in-law, in Chicago, because Gillis had better contacts for this sort of thing. Gillus called E&A in Cleveland. Shubow said he was not involved in this and did not know how much Scanlon merchandise was sent to Cleveland. On September 17, Shubow and Gillis met Irving Lichterman and Eddie Wigodski in Cleveland to finalize deal and ensure they (S and G) would get a 5% commission for connecting Scanlon to E&A. They also hoped to get a percentage of any profit E&A made, but no cut was agreed upon. They even had to fight to maintain the 50% of invoice cost because E&A was now asking for 40%. Shubow said that Gillis believed that E&A was a syndicate “front” because Lichterman was close with (redacted) and had access to money despite having no money of his own.
January 7, 1959: James Bishop appeared in bankruptcy court with his attorney, Dominic Frinzi. Other than his name, Bishop refused to answer any questions during the hearing. Frinzi said that it would not be a good idea for him to comment on the record now when a criminal trial was still coming.
January 26, 1959: Tony Thomas went to the Detroit FBI office. Thomas said he had told Jess Beron to talk to his attorney and tell the full, true story of his dealing with Scanlon merchandise. Thomas said that the FBI knew the whole story and had nothing to add. He did say, however, that a $5,000 receipt he had previously shown the FBI he believed at the time to be original, but now knew it was a phony. Thomas said he didn’t know who paid the $5,000 or who received it, as he was not present during the transaction. He only knew his employer asked him to move merchandise and he did not wish to answer questions because he had a duty to protect his employer.
February 2: A bad check charge against Bishop for $189.40 was dismissed. This stemmed from a purchase he made from Clarence Casanova’s sporting goods store. The store was reimbursed when Bishop’s bank account was garnished, and the state saw little value in pursuing the case when much larger problems loomed. (In a totally unrelated incident, a few years later Casanova and his son would be in trouble for selling unlicensed machine guns.)
Finazzo was interviewed February 12, 1959 and said, “I ain’t telling youse guys anything I don’t want you to know.” He further said that as far as he was concerned, his purchase was a legitimate one. He said a former employee, Tony Thomas, borrowed $5,000 for a down payment to purchase the goods from Beron at 35% of cost. Finazzo said he tried to get the $5,000 back from Beron repeatedly, but failed until telling Beron’s attorney that if he did not get the money back, he would take what was owed him “out of Beron’s hide.” Finazzo claimed that he went back on the deal because Thomas had instructed Beron to bring the goods to Canada, but Finazzo did not want to pay the customs duty. When asked, he said he did have friends in Milwaukee, but declined to name them.
On February 16, 1959, Bishop and Verville pleaded not guilty to charges against them that they transported stolen goods across state lines. Bishop was represented by attorney Dominic Frinzi, a close associate of Frank Balistrieri. Government attorney Howard W. Hilgendorf warned that more charges might be coming and a trial date was left open pending those charges.
February 20: Rushus Williams was re-interviewed. He said he hauled approximately ten trailer loads from Scnalon to E&A in September and was paid by a man named Irving. He did not know the names of the men who unloaded the trailers. On the way back, he would pick up a load from the Harwood Trucking Company in Cleveland that was heading for Chicago, and then “deadhead” to West Allis after dropping it off (deadhead just means he drove with an empty trailer). Williams refused to sign anything after making his statements to the FBI.
March 20, 1959: Lichterman was arrested, arraigned and released on $5,000 bond.
March 23, 1959: Wigodski was arrested, arraigned and released on $5,000 bond.
April 16, 1959: E&A was forced into involuntary bankruptcy.
On May 11, Bishop pleaded not guilty to sixteen charges stemming from the Scanlon fraud investigation. Specifically, he was said to be using Scanlon’s as a “front” for receiving credit and then shipping the merchandise to out of state warehouses without paying for the goods. His co-conspirator was named as Verville.
On June 3, 1959, Bishop and Verville entered a plea of guilty to mail fraud. Robert L. “Ralph” Halpin of Detroit also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy receiving the stolen goods. Hilgendorf asked Judge Tehan to ignore the other charges against Bishop and Verville in exchange for their testimony. Charges against Ruth Jane McGuigan of Chicago were also dropped in exchange for testimony.
Following the pleas of guilty, assistant US Attorney Howard Hilgendorf told the press that he was considering recalling the grand jury. If Verville and Bishop were willing to talk, perhaps more people involved in the conspiracy could be indicted.
Eugene Philip Gillis turned himself in to authorities in Chicago on November 30, and was released by Judge Michael Igoe on $500 bond. Gillis was named in an indictment as a driving force behind Scanlon’s goods being shipped to Cleveland and Detroit in 1958. US Attorney Matthew M. Corry labeled Gillis a “principal” in the scam, and further said he conspired to transport the goods across state lines as recently as April.
December 4, 1959: Giant Value Distributing Company of Oak Park, Michigan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (arrangement).
1960
March 28, 1960: The FBI spoke with the minority owner of Giant Value Distributing Company (name redacted) in Oak Park, Michigan. The man had bee na former business partner with Sid Fein, but Fein left Giant Value in September 1959 to move to Sherman Oaks, California to work in plastics. He knew Wigodski and Lichterman professionally, and had recently heard they were in Los Angeles selling aluminum siding. The man said Sid Fein would probably know exactly where the two went, but also Fein would surely warn them that the FBI was looking for them.
April 27, 1960: The FBI remained in regular contact with the family of Rushus Williams, believing that Williams would be the key to finding any fugitives. The problem was that he was often out of town on long trips for Independent Truck Hauling.
April 28, 1960: As the trial began, James Bishop testified, “Milwaukee is a friendly town, everybody knows that.” He said that he and Verville purchased Scanlon in July 1958 and decided to keep the name. This name gave them access to “unlimited credit,” so they purchased a large amount of goods that they diverted to a warehouse in West Allis before being forwarded through Chicago to Detroit and Cleveland. Bishop said he fled Milwaukee in October 1958 when bankruptcy proceedings began. $180,000 of goods were shipped to Cleveland, for which he was paid $32,000. Of the 22 truckloads sent to Detroit, Bishop claimed he never saw a penny.
On May 3, 1960, Verville, who had turned state’s witness, testified. He said that the scam was started by sending out 7,000 postcards to various suppliers requesting catalogs. The cards said “Hello Again from Scanlon’s” and “Here Since 1933”. Of those sent, roughly 5,000 responded and from there they ordered $500,000 worth of merchandise — mostly electrical appliances — from approximately 1300 vendors. He said that Gillis, Gillis’ brother-in-law Jacob Louis Shubow of Detroit, Irving Isadore Lichterman and Daniel Edward Wigodski all conspired to accept the goods at low prices. Lichterman later tried to back out of $195,000 worth of goods for his store in Cleveland, so Verville went there personally to talk with him. He was told by Lichterman, “We have powerful friends who will physically take care of you.” In the end, Verville lost $15,000 on the deal — he said he made $35,000 initially, but it was “eaten up in transportation and warehouse costs.”
The next day, Halpin took his turn on the stand. He explained that they had created a fictitious person, James B. Kelly, to run their finances through. Regarding two Diners Club credit cards, “Bishop had one and Verville and I shared the other.” As the business collapsed, Halpin and Verville “charged everything” on their way to Cleveland and Bishop did the same as he left for California.
May 5: Lichterman approached SA Robert Keenan and Jess Beron in the hallway during a trial recess. He said he moved to California because he could no longer do business in Cleveland with all the bad publicity. He abandoned E&A Sales with $75,000 in stock still there. Lichterman swore he was being framed and “never saw” the men testifying against him in his life. He further said he ended up losing money on the Scanlon merchandise because every time the FBI found it he had to move it and “the colored boys stole him blind.”
On May 6, Judge Tehan denied a motion for mistrial from attorneys John H. Wessel and Julius Lucius Echeles, after they argued that Tehan had treated witness Jacob Shubow of Detroit in a prejudicial way by asking him questions while he was being cross-examined by assistant US Attorney Corry. Tehan said he was merely trying to make Shubow’s testimony more clear to the jury so they would understand the transactions between the Milwaukee store and outlets in Detroit and Cleveland.
On May 9, Shubow testified that he was threatened by attorney Hilgendorf to plead guilty or else his brother-in-law would be indicted. Gillis was, of course, indicted months after Shubow pleaded not guilty, but proving this was because of the threat was impossible. Corry told the press that Shubow’s claim was “ridiculous” and that Gillis was indicted based on evidence brought by Corry, not Hilgendorf.
May 10, 1960: The jury found Shubow, Gillis, Lichterman and Wigodski all guilty. The judge ordered a pre-sentence investigation.
July 5, 1960: Chicago attorney Julius Eckles presented an affidavit to the FBI that claimed some of the men were guaranteed lighter sentences by US Attorney (redacted). This confused the FBI, as all the convicted men denied any such deal.
July 11, 1960: In a private memo, the Chicago office of the FBI warned the Milwaukee office that attorney Julius Eckles “has an unsavory reputation” and “represents primarily clients from the hoodlum element. He is considered to be an attorney who will go beyond what is generally considered ethical practices of an attorney in defending a client.”
July 19, 1960: An attorney for Jack Shubow reached out to the FBI and said that (redacted) of Forest Park had recently been arrested on a narcotics charge and at the time of arrest was now claiming he had lied during Shubow’s trial. (A cursory check by the FBI showed no arrest for narcotics.)
July 21, 1960: The convicted men voluntarily went to the FBI and signed affidavits saying they were not guaranteed lighter sentences and did not know what this other affidavit was about. They said they were aware that the FBI and prosecutors had no say in the matter and it was in the hands of the judge.
July 28, 1960: An FBI page is so redacted I have no idea what was going on, but a subject in Ann Arbor, Michigan was being looked at, including his former wives. His current wife was in the hospital after collapsing.
July 29, 1960: Lichterman was indicted in Miami for an unrelated mail fraud and bankruptcy case called “Bluflame Distributors” (Bureau File 49-HQ-13576). Phone records also showed he had been in contact with Harold Klein of Milwaukee, the local mob fence.
August 1, 1960: When all was said and done, everyone on trial was convicted and sentenced to either three or four years in prison, depending on whether they cooperated. Finazzo, Balistrieri and their mobster cronies were never implicated in any wrongdoing.
August 1, 1960: Salvatore C. Quarino, a trustee of the Scanlon firm, sued the convicted men for $380,000.
August 3, 1960: (Redacted) called the Chicago FBI office and now said he had heard the Eckles acquired the affidavit after bugging the hotel room of a government attorney. The caller said he knew the information was “sketchy” but didn’t want to press the woman he heard it from and make her suspicious.
August 12, 1960: The US Attorney was told that (redacted), recently sent to Sandstone Federal Prison, wanted to “tell the whole story.” The prosecutor decided not to visit the man, seeing no value in hearing the story at this point.
August 12: Halpin filed an appeal to reconsider his sentence.
September 12, 1960: Verville and Halpin moved for reduction of sentence and withdrawal and vacation of their pleas of guilty. They contended that there had been a confidential agreement on their behalf with Assistant United States Attorney Howard Hilgendorf that they would receive leniency in sentencing for the plea of guilty and for their cooperation and testimony on the trial. This agreement was allegedly okayed by Judge Tehan. Tehan said he was unaware of any such “arrangement.” The petition claimed it was arranged between Hilgendorf and defense attorneys Albert Summer and Dominic Frinzi on June 2, 1959, and approved by Tehan the next day. Hilgendorf declined to comment on the petition, saying it was a pending court matter and would be improper.
September 19-20, 1960: A jewelry fencing took place in Oklahoma City. 300 watches had been taken from the BC Clark Jewelry Store there. Somehow, Lichterman and Wigodski were suspects.
September 26, 1960: Shubow, Gillis, Lichterman and Wigodski appealed, asking for an acquittal or new trial on the grounds that false testimony was used to convict them.
October 18, 1960: Verville and Halpin were denied their appeals. The other men were denied their appeal asking for acquittal but granted a hearing about getting a new trial.
On November 30, 1960, the defense filed a motion with Judge Kenneth Grubb for a retrial for Shubow, Lichterman, Wigodski and Gillis based on what they called “newly discovered evidence”. The motion was affirmed on December 7, when Grubb concurred that the jury was not aware that Verville, Bishop and Halpin were testifying in exchange for dropped charges. In fact, the three men had falsely testified that no such promises had been made. The convicted men relied heavily on the Supreme Court case Napue v Illinois (1959) which was almost an exact parallel – a man testifying he had received no promise of a deal when he had. This made his testimony unusable, even though the lie was not about the defendants.
December 7, 1960: Grubb granted Lichterman, Gillis, Wigodski and Shubow a new trial. The government appealed.
1961
February 20, 1961: Grubb denied the government’s appeal.
April 26, 1961: Gillis left a forwarding address, saying he was moving from Glencoe, Illinois to Anchorage, Kentucky. (It seems this move was temporary; records suggest he was back in Glencoe by 1963.)
June 30, 1961: Judge Tehan dismissed charges against Lichterman, Gillis, Wigodski and Shubow. US Attorney Corry said he could not prosecute without the testimony of Bishop and Verville, who were currently appealing their sentences.
October 11, 1961: James Bishop, who had already been in prison 14 months on a 3-year sentence, filed to withdraw his guilty plea. Bishop claimed that he pleaded guilty following promises prosecutor Howard Hilgendorf made to defense attorney Albert Summer. Bishop’s attorney was Dominic Frinzi, but Frinzi allegedly told Bishop that if Hilgendorf had made such promises his word could be trusted.
Bishop was granted a new trial on November 13, 1961 by Judge Tehan, and ordered Bishop released from Leavenworth immediately, where he had served fifteen months of his three year sentence. Bishop had argued, and Tehan agreed, that Bishop had only pleaded guilty because he was promised probation by Attorney Hilgendorf, who had since gone on to become a federal bankruptcy referee. A not guilty plea was entered for Bishop.
1962
By March 1962, Halpin and Verville were working together in a new business venture: waterproofing basements in New York and Ohio. The retrials were still hanging over everyone, years after the initial arrests.
June 6, 1962: Wigodski legally changed his name to Edward D. Walston. (No idea why a judge would allow this.)
November 27, 1962: Judge Omer Poos granted a motion to suppress statements and testimony against some of the defendants.
1963
May 8, 1963: US Attorney James Brennan informed the FBI that the indictment might be dismissed if there wasn’t enough left to prosecute.
June 3, 1963: An FBI memo noted that no agent in Milwaukee was involved in the case – they had since been transferred. The US Attorney assigned was also new to the facts. This was another hurdle in prosecution.
June 6, 1963: Brennan, the FBI and the postal inspector had a meeting discussing the issues of trying the case again. Their opinions were sent to Brennan’s superior, Assistant Attorney General Herbert J. Miller, for guidance.
Verville asked for the indictment against him to be dropped on November 19, 1963 on the ground that the government had failed to prosecute diligently.
December 17, 1963: Verville, Halpin and Bishop, represented by Leo Feltman, argued their right to a speedy trial was violated. “If there is any meaning to the sixth amendment,” Feltman argued, “two and a half years of waiting for trial makes no sense.”
1964
February 26, 1964: A pretrial conference was held in Springfield in front of Judge Poos. The trial was scheduled for June 1 (later pushed back a week).
May 14, 1964: Attorney Julius Echeles (who was facing disbarment) refused to allow Jack Shubow to be interviewed.
In June 8-11, 1964, Verville and Bishop stood trial for what the prosecution called “a sophisticated scheme.” Attorney Dominic Frinzi argued his client (Bishop) was “a poor businessman, not a criminal; there was no intention to defraud.” Lee Feltman, speaking for Verville said suppliers sent goods “willingly” and without fraud. Feltman claimed the pair intended to pay their creditors, but the buyers in Detroit and Cleveland did not pay fast enough. They were convicted after the jury deliberated two hours.
June 26, 1964: Lichterman left his apartment at 1440 Creekside Drive in Walnut Creek, California without giving the manager any notice.
August 10, 1964: Verville was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $5,000. Bishop was given five years probation and fined $1,000. (Why was Verville treated so harshly?)
1965
February 15-18, 1965: Robert Halpin on trial before Judge Poos, found guilty. On September 17, he was sentenced to three years in prison (again) and fined $2,500. The defense attorney expressed an interest in appealing, and Poos set the bond at $4,000.
Verville appealed without Bishop, and on December 28, 1965, the court of appeals reversed the conviction based on the improper introduction of bankruptcy records and a new pre-trial was set for September 28, 1967 — almost nine full years after the initial indictment!
1967
Around June 7, 1967, the Supreme Court declined to hear Halpin’s case, and his sentence was firm.